In between the release of ScHoolboy Q’s morose and great Habits & Contradictions and his major label debut, Oxymoron, his TDE labelmate Kendrick Lamar took over the world. While Habits was very well-received and ramped up interest in Q’s career, K. Dot’s 2012-2013 run cast a spotlight over the TDE crew wide enough to illuminate all of southern California.

The bar had been raised, and the conversation shifted from questioning whether ScHoolboy Q could meet or exceed the high expectations set by his crewmate to whether anybody in music could reach those heights. Instead of an instant classic Oxymoron turns out to be a mixed bag of satisfyingly moody tales, hit-or-miss reaches for radio, and welcome surprises.

ScHoolboy Q sings the blues

ScHoolboy Q is a refreshingly unique emcee. From his schizophrenic cadences and vocal tics, to his frequently pessimistic perspective, Q’s offbeat approach to being a gangsta rapper is a welcome change from the never-ending horde of perpetual winners who sell kilos of cocaine and never get caught, f*ck your b*tch, and drive off in a six-figure sports car. On “Prescription/Oxymoron” you can feel the vice grip of opiates tighten on your own body, as Q relays how drugs numbed him, stole his ambition, and made him shirk his responsibilities. On the second half of the similarly two-part “Hoover Street,” Q starts the verse stating “find a n*gga realer than me/my socks stink.” There’s not much glamor to be found here, but plenty of visceral drama.

One of these things is not like the others.

That real life drama is also peppered by some attempts to show that Q isn’t just a Crip with twitchy nerves made raw from lean, pills, and the everyday post traumatic stress disorder that is being an active gang member. While Q’s attempts at party anthems and potential radio singles aren’t bad, they are the outsiders in Oymoron‘s neighborhood, leaving everyone to wonder what business they have being there.

Q sneaks in some social commentary (“Home of the paid on the first/then n*gga going broke by the third”) over Nez & Rio’s trippy production on “Man Of The Year,” but “Hell Of A Night” and “Studio” sound much more out of place. The latter would be great as a Dom Kennedy song featuring Q, but goes down like sugary Kool-Aid bookended by the straight whiskey shots of the aforementioned “Hoover Street” and “Prescription.”

The guest appearances are strong, but uneven.

2 Chainz is so ubiquitous that just seeing his name on a tracklist screams cliche. Thankfully, his verse over Mike WiLL Made It’s subdued production on “What They Want” is about as 2 Chainz a verse that exists. Filled with delightfully odd non sequiturs (“I put everything over yellow rice”) and dopeboy freshness, the ATL Codeine Cowboy pairs with Q like lean and Sprite. Raekwon’s darts are as potent as ever on “Blind Threats,” but his verse does not blend quite as well with Q’s poignant and personal bars.

Two producers phone it in.

Pharrell is on one hell of a winning streak, but even the greats have off days. “Los Awesome” is a busy collection of sounds that Pharrell has pulled off in the past, but this track’s take is muddled. Tyler, The Creator, who draws significant inspiration from the aforementioned Neptunes producer, also doesn’t supply his best work on the Kurupt-featuring “The Purge.” The beat is surprisingly tame for the Odd Future polymath, especially for a track with as much potential for chaos as one with ScHoolboy Q and the Dogg Pound Gangsta.

Dealing with high expectations

When one member of your crew sets the world on fire, it’s hard to manage the public’s expectations. While it is not the game changer that many were waiting for, Oxymoron is a mostly strong, but at times poorly curated collection of good songs–and it’s also one of the best this quarter. ScHoolboy Q’s unabashed allegiance and novel approach to gangsta rap are on grand display on Oxymoron. And though the album may not change the face of music, it will reinvigorate the genre and give another definition of what it means to be a G.

I went from a 3.5 to a 2. After multiple listens this album just feels empty. On a great album you should feel like you delve in an artist’s mind, I don’t feel that at all here. I guess what I’m saying is that it lacked vision. Anyway, the singles were good but that’s about it.

Co-sign Raymond Chariot…Studio and Grooveline pt 2 get some burn every now and then but I wasn’t impressed. Love the Man of the Year video more than the song (saw the video first).

I haven’t heard any of his prior stuff but this doesn’t make me really want to. I like TDE’s movement more than the individuals. Actually, Ab Soul is an interesting dude. I need to listen to more of this stuff. I’m also not one of the millions impressed by good kid, maad city.

Get rid of Los Awesome and The Purge and it would be a much stronger album. Los Awesome is by far the worst song on the album, and it’s also the second. I mean, that is just a flat out not-good song. The Purge is ok, but it’s not helped by the fact that is in literally the middle of the strongest sequence of the album (Hoover Street, Studio (which goes in the whip, but it should probably be placed before Hoover Street), Prescription/Oxymoron, and then Blind Threats.)

Moving it would have been an improvement, but it still wouldn’t have fit on the album. The beat doesn’t fit. Jay Rock doesn’t even sound like Jay Rock.

Most importantly, and I’ve never ever had this thought about a TDE song before, it’s just flat out not mixed well. I thought I would like it better once I gave it some play in the car, but it sounded even worse.

I like this type of feedback – everyone is giving valid reasons as to what did not sit well with him or her. To me… that equates to positive analysis.

But @Greed “Most importantly, and I’ve never ever had this thought about a TDE song before, it’s just flat out not mixed well. I thought I would like it better once I gave it some play in the car, but it sounded even worse.”

Kinda feels that Q is not as artistically ambition than the rest of the crew but I don’t mind his stuff because it’s all him at his stage in (artistic) life. From his interviews being laxed out & admitting to too much drugs, this LP seemed more like a ‘ride to’ album that Q needed to get outta his system.

A bit lost for ideas on some tracks & a few weird track choices but it is what it is.

In all seriousness though, If Q hadn’t made those radio reaching records, and just focused on the Gangsta shit of Hoover Street and the personal experiences of Prescription and Blind Threats, we would be looking at a truly modern take on Gangsta Rap.

When Q’s on fire, he’s really on. We get songs like Sacrilegious, Raymond 1969, Blessed, Yay Yay. But then you hear stuff like Hell of a Night and the mood of the album just feels off.

Those “Radio Songs” are actually really good, if you think about it. It may be out of context with the album as a whole, but that’s from one perspective. You could look at from the perspective of someone celebrating his life while reflecting on the scene that made him as a whole. Aside from that, who is making serious G music in this era when that genre has been reduced to a cartoon by artists like Wayne and Ross? So this album is a pioneering one. oh yeah, the obligatory: IMO.

+1
Studio is one of my favorite songs and I can appreciate all the legit gangster songs also. I listen front to back and as long as I can do that without skipping the album is good IMO. Cherrypicking songs and listening from them on isn’t valid and will ruin the experience.

Yeah, I agree more with this comment than the review. I personally dug the album a lot because it really felt like him reflecting and celebrating the fact that he made it out of where he came from. It made him seem a lot more human to me, plus those “radio songs” (like Studio, Los Awesome, & The Purge) just sounded good to me. *shrug*

Plus everybody is forgetting about the TDE Remix power. Remember, Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe Remix? Think of what could be done with Studio . . . That’s the weakest radio song. . . . . Man of the Year, Hell of a Night, and What They Want are solid . . . Though I could see What They Want getting the Remix treatment too.

Also, I was underwhelmed by Rae’s verse (which made me feel some type of way : smh).

At it’s apex (i.e., “Break The Bank”, “Hoover St” & “Prescription/Oxymoron”), Q shows he could be one of the best rappers we have now. I think this album was a good balance to Ross’ “Mastermind”. Q gives you the gritty, hood side of gangsterism and it’s true downfalls, while Ross gives you the mafioso, lavish dopeboy fantasy album.

co-sign this right here. been reading TSS for over 3 years now (just made an account a couple months back lol), the writing being so on point is what initially drew me in, but the community, intelligent discussion, and genuine love for the music present here in the comment section is what made this my favorite site. can’t find this anywhere else on the net.

1) initially I did not like this album a lot. A few nice records but I got pretty far into the work as a whole before I hit a song that I had to go back and listen too. But after giving it a few more full runs in the background while I did stuff, I like it much more. I’d say though that it is more of a passive album to listen to than an active album like Habits were I’ll constantly have itches to hear specific cuts (which normally leads to me just listening to te whole thing again)

2) I’m glad to see the review and these comments on Los Awesome are exactly in sync with mine. I was halfway though the album on my 1st listen and was still thinking about how fucking terrible that beat is. God good. It sounds like Pharell just put every sound he had on it and that Q only took it b/c it was a Pharell beat. Should have left that shit and instead made a full song to that 1st beat on Hover Street. Now that beat was a banger.

3) Biggest surprise for me: I fucking LOVE Studio. Love it. In fact, it has probably gotten the most play from me. To me, it screams album single. I still have that hook running though my head on the daily. And best part of it is that while it sounds like a single, Q still sounds like Q to me. Aggressive and passionate. It just happens to be all about fucking rather than gangbanging.

The only thing I would disagree with would be criticism of “The Purge”. Even though the production does lack, Q’s second verse is tuff!! His flow and Kurupt young-muthafukin-Gotty (no relation to TSS’s Gotty [at least I don’t think]) saved Tyler’s beat.

Am I the only one who LOVES “The Purge”? Tyler’s great on the hook and didn’t get the chance to drop a lame distracting verse and I think the instrumental is grimy as hell.

“Los Awesome” is forgettable and a waste of a Jay Rock feature. Other than that I still think it’s great but since my car’s been out of commission I haven’t really listened to it at all. It’s built for cars.

Anyone else hearing that weird, slight fade-out on “Man of the Year” whenever the word “ass” is mentioned in the chorus. I mean, just why? It wasn’t that case in the video (or maybe I was just too hypnotized by the females, but still…).

They could’ve sequenced this album a bit better, I mean Los Awesome should be near the end of the album, not the second spot on the album. I wanted to like this album but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. Usually takes 3-4 spins for me to like an album, Oxy took 6-7.